Is Rap Actually Music or is it a Bad Influence?

The world of hip hop would have you believe that rap is a very poetic way of expressing yourself through music. This can of course be true, but does what you hear from rap music sound very poetic to you? The influence that rap currently has on our children all around the world is unfortunately a very strong one. If you have not noticed many of the major leaders in the rap community try to get involved with good causes and political campaigns in order to make it appear that rap is a good thing. But have you really taken the time to listen to some of these rap songs? I mean really focus on the words and what they mean.

Eighty percent of the rap music that is currently on the top ten lists around the world contains violence. They glorify the acts of beating up another person, or even worse shooting them. Looking like someone who just got released from prison in their eyes is a good thing. Not to mention that half of the time they are yelling their lyrics in such a loud and annoying way you may not be able to really understand what they are saying. Remember this is where the fashion statement of wearing pants off of your butt and looking sloppy came from in addition to women who are half naked. What is the end result of half naked women in a rap music video?

Obviously girls think this is the way for other boys or men to notice them and to make themselves more popular in school. Another thing that rap music also seems to glorify is that what matters most when looking for a good woman is what her body looks like. This is why there are so many teenagers who have eating disorders or other emotional problems. They just dont feel that they fit the diagram of what teenage girls should like. Rap music also glorifies drinking, and sex. Two things which happen to be a major problem amoung many children today.

There are some rappers however who keep their lyrics clean and try to rap about positive things. Although the numbers of rappers who do this are very few there definitely are some out there who send a good message to children. One of these is Will Smith who has outwardly spoken about how he does not see the need to include vulgar language or lyrics in his rap music. So the bottom line is that when you are trying to determine whether or not to allow your child to listen to rap music, it is not so much rap itself, but the artist which they choose to listen too.

Rap music did originally start as a poetic form of music, it has just been distorted by people who choose to use rap as a way to promote gang violence and other means of self destruction. Make sure that you take the time to listen to the music that your child listens to. And dont be so quick to rule out rap music, just make sure that you take the time to listen to the lyrics first and then make your decision. For additional information you can visit the following websites: www.uic.edu, www.yale.edu, www.rapworld.com, www.rhino.com.

Here’s a compelling response to this article from my man Cenzi out of Chilee:

Hell yeah its a bad influence. I can easily prove my point with one example.

In certain countries that recieve hiphop music through whichever way possible, they start copying American antics, such as gangs. I have seen “crips” in the weirdest countries, where there shouldn’t be any at all. They only do this because of the whole Crip Walk @..%$ that popped off a couple yrs back. That was brought to them through hiphop.

Another example?

I can probably name about 10 different types of guns, some hard liquor I dont drink, different types of weeds, and I know about the word Ho as a demeaning way of treating a woman. and all of this thankx to hiphop. Now, I am old enough to take all of this in as “information” and leave it at that, but younger more impressionable minds want to hold these guns, try these weeds, drink these liqours and have a few hos…. Negative influence? hell yeah.

What can I get from listening to the other types of music? hmm.. no other music is so graphic in violent nature. Well except some of that thrash metal @..%$ that talks about some satanism… and yeah thats a negative influence too, buuuuuut, it aint and it will never be top ten material, not like hiphop, so it effects much less…

anyways.. I say this as a hiphop fan, and I love me some SPice 1 and Cold 187 lyrics (congrats on his freedom BTW), but I am old enough to discern bad from good. I wish more hiphop catered to younger minds. And I dont mean, give them watered down pop rap, I mean, give them more De La Soul, Quest and Visionaries…….

Comments

I don’t understand why people try to blame most,
if not all, of the ills of the world on one particular thing. What about movies and TV shows that protray violence and/or suggestive sexual material, not to mention magazines and fashion shows that suggest the feminine ideal to be rail thin women with breast implants.
I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with hip-hop, because lord knows at the moment there is way more wrong with it than right, but we should not forget that gangs, drug use, objectification of women, and yes
even questionable fashion decisions by the youth, of all eras, all existed before brothers started rapping.
So yeah make sure you know what kid is listening to but don’t think everything is ‘gon be alright cuz you threw out all his, or her, tupac CD’s.

“Is Rap Actually Music or is it a Bad Influence?” Yes some of it is. But Hip Hop is like food. there is some that is good for you and then there is junk. And just like food, many of us fend for what is not good for us. But there are many artist there with substance in there bars. On the flip side we can;t not continue to blame our problems on music. We need to learn to accept responsibility for our actions.

Rap is the music industry created in 1979 by a woman named Sylvia Robinson, Hip-hop is “Helping Ignorant People – Hurt Our People”. Don’t get it twisted. Rap – segregated music form – Hip-hop – new-wave minstrel since 1985. Know the difference, People.

I would like to respond to the argument being made in the following comment:
“Hell yeah its a bad influence. I can easily prove my point with one example.

In certain countries that recieve hiphop music through whichever way possible, they start copying American antics, such as gangs. I have seen “crips” in the weirdest countries, where there shouldn’t be any at all. They only do this because of the whole Crip Walk @..%$ that popped off a couple yrs back. That was brought to them through hiphop.”

You are arguing that hip hop is a bad influence by saying that it has brought gangs to “weird” countries. However, you have not provided enough evidence to prove that the emersion of gangs in any particular country is directly related to the influence of American hip hop. Your argument seems to follow as: 1) Countries receive hip hop through any way possible and start copying american antics 2) you have seen creeps in the weirdest countries where there shouldnt be any at all 3) the appearance of crips is because of the Crip Walk introduced a couple years back 4) the walk was brought to them through hip hop. I do not find this a sufficiently effective sequence of premises to believe your conclusion that all hip hop is a bad infleunce.

The argument is made weak by such a sweeping generalization that all hip hop is bad. Therefore, I do not find it reasonable to believe this conclusion given the premises. Although the conclusion that hip hop has a negative influence is believable, the premises given do not seem relevant.

I honestly don’t have any interest in rap. And to be honest, rap is a really bad influence on younger kids and teenagers. It has too much profanity and sexual activity, and that is something that I have a strong dislike of.

ok so saying “mason is chasing his dreams racing back and forth to force people so say raps bad but he’s facing everybody who likes rap now he’s hating on everybody nowadays who thinks rap is creating” is so evil and destructive, because what I just said is a wasteland. so dumb

I would say it’s not rap by itself that’s a bad influence, it’s the glorification of violence and misogyny that’s the bad influence, wherever it chooses to present itself. Whether it chooses to present itself in movies, television, or music is irrelevant. It’s a bad influence regardless. Rap music gets a bad rap (no pun) because much of the popular rap today seems to glorify violence and misogyny. I believe at one time, early rap groups spoke of this violence in with more earnestness because that’s what they were experience; it’s a lifestyle that they were born into. Nowadays, it seems like more rappers actively seek this lifestyle because they know it’s what sells and it’s “hip”. However, I’d categorize most rap, like most mainstream music, as trash because there’s little art behind it and it is considerably dumbed down in order to cater to people of low intellect. In other words, most rap, like most corporate mainstream music, lacks artistic integrity and creativity. Everything is auto-tuned and over-produced. I look forward to the day when a whole movement of music comes along that really scares people, much like Nirvana’s Nevermind did in 1991…I remember people throwing away their hair-metal records because they seemed so petty and boring after hearing that album. Will something like that happen again? I hope so, but I am not optimistic.

There is a French rapper called MC Mou. He is from Marseilles, France. He raps about escargot, the Eiffel Tower, the 35 hour work week, and surrendering easily…you know, all things French. I’d say it’s a bad influence because if you listen to it, it will actually make you retarded.